Pittsville, WI

Pittsville is a Wood County city of 813 residents in the 2020 census, surrounded by parks, forests, and the Yellow River. Wisconsin's geographic center is marked near the County Highway E bridge on the city's east side, a distinction that gives Pittsville a fun answer to the question of where it sits. The settlement grew from the lumber trade: James Quick Severn arrived in 1849, Oliver Pitts in 1856, and the Pitts family operated a sawmill near the river. The place that became Pitts Mill eventually became Pittsville.

Fire changed downtown three times in the early twentieth century. Fires in 1911, 1924, and 1928 destroyed large parts of the business district, and rebuilding after 1928 shifted the commercial line to 2nd Avenue, now Highway 80. The Pitts family established the first school, while the Pittsville School District, parks, campgrounds, and the Yellow River keep the city's practical map connected to the surrounding county. The Pittsville Record, descended from newspapers begun in 1883, adds another long-running local thread. Pittsville is a Wisconsin center-point city with a timber past and a river running through its present.